1. Technical Field
Embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to enclosures for electronics, and more specifically to methods of manufacturing enclosures formed from a fiber-in-matrix material.
2. Background
Many electronic devices, including portable electronic devices, have enclosures made of a fiber-in-matrix material. For example, certain devices may have an enclosure formed from carbon fiber reinforced plastic (“CFRP”). A standard CFRP may be made of multiple layers, each of which typically has carbon fibers aligned in a plastic matrix such that the fibers all extend in substantially the same direction within that layer. The carbon fibers impart structural strength as well as resistance to bending and breaking against force applied transversely to the length of the fibers. As such, CFRP materials generally have a high strength to weight ratio and weight to stiffness ratio, but tend to crack or bend under shear stresses, such as may occur when a CFRP sheet is bent along the axis of the constituent carbon fibers.
Electronic device enclosures may include multiple CFRP panels that are assembled into a unitary body to form the enclosure. The interior-facing surface of the assembled CFRP panels may include multiple protruding features, such as male and female alignment features, bosses, wire guides, and so on and so forth. These protruding features often require precise computer numerical controlled (CNC) machining techniques for their manufacture. However, given the susceptibility of CFRP to cracking or bending under shear stress, processing CFRP using CNC machining applications to form the protruding features may not be ideal.